How to Make a Sierpinski Triangle
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can EditThe Sierpinski triangle was named after its inventor, the Polish mathematician Sierpinski. This intriguing design consists entirely of simple equilateral triangles. Here's how to make your own.
Steps
- Print out triangular grid paper. You can make your own in a graphics program, print out the image next to this step (click to enlarge), or print it out from here.
- Draw an equilateral triangle with sides of 2 triangle lengths each.
- Colour the three outside triangles, but leave the one in the middle blank.
- Draw two similar triangles at the base of the first one.
- Colour the outside triangles, again leaving the one in the middle blank. Notice the large triangle in the middle, that should be left blank as well. You can cut the blank triangles out later.
- Draw three more triangles. Colour them as mentioned in the previous steps.
- Add the next line. You can add more colours, but maybe it's interesting to keep the number of colours limited.
- Keep adding lines until you're pleased with the result.
Tips
- The design in this article was made in Paint. Open the grid in Paint, and use the thickest line to draw. Set the colour to white to "erase" the center triangles.
- You may also choose to colour the center triangles as well, to obtain a triangle like this one
- Draw more shapes and stick them together to form a pyramid. Cut an extra line around the shape to use for gluing.
- If you want to form a three dimensional shape, glue the designs to a piece of cardstock to make them more sturdy.
- Instead of different colours, try using different shades of the same colour.
Things You'll Need
- triangular grid paper
- (felt) pens, markers or pencils.
- ruler
- Optional:
- scissors
- cardstock
- glue
Related wikiHows
- How to Draw an Equilateral Triangle
- How to Draw an Impossible Triangle
- How to Create a Line Design
- How to Plot the Mandelbrot Set By Hand
Sources and Citations
Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make a Sierpinski Triangle. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
